Objectives: While digital mental health interventions may improve access to timely support for women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), scant research exists on (a) how metastatic survivors engage with these programs, and (b) what factors impact usage. This study therefore sought to address these gaps by qualitatively exploring barriers and facilitators to engaging with Finding My Way-Advanced (FMW-A), an online psychosocial program for women with MBC.
Methods: Women with MBC, who received either a 6-week intervention or online control as part of a larger RCT, participated in semi-structured interviews. Recruitment ceased upon theme saturation, and transcripts were coded using framework analysis.
Results: 20 women participated (n=13 intervention; n=7 control). Intervention engagement was high, ranging from all six modules completed (n=3); to five (n=5), four (n=1), and two modules (n=4). Key facilitators were satisfaction with the program’s content, quality, convenience of use, ability to self-pace, ease of navigation, and deriving personal benefits/impact. Common barriers were difficulties with access – particularly technical-related barriers, and time-toxicity - from health-related barriers, competing demands, and poor intervention-timing relative to time since diagnosis.
Conclusion and clinical implications: This study adds to the body of research on digital health engagement by offering new and unique insights in the metastatic setting, and provides key targets for program improvement that can be generalised across metastatic populations.